Chapter 3

When I got back home, I noticed someone had splashed red paint on my door. I took out my keys to open the door. Mom was sitting on the couch, waiting for me to come home. A mug came flying at me before I managed to turn around. It brushed past my forehead and crashed to the ground, where it shattered into tiny glass shards. It was the mug Gideon had bought for me when we went shopping at The Westhill last year. Mom spat, "How dare you still show your face here? You've completely embarrassed me! Do you know what your aunts are saying about me? They're saying that I've failed to educate you well! "Your father was seduced by a homewrecker. You know that I hate homewreckers the most, yet you became one yourself! Instead of having a proper relationship, you chose to get yourself involved with a taken man. Does living such a life excite you? As expected, you're as shameless as your father!" I cried while explaining, "No, Mom. I'm not like that—he's the one who accused me!" Mom slapped me without hesitation. "You're saying that that man is framing you? Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? What do you even have that he would frame you for?" She suddenly grabbed a fruit knife and held it against her neck. "Record a video and send it to the family group chat now. Tell them that you're no longer my daughter from now onward. I won't have a daughter like you! Do it—otherwise I'll kill myself in front of you!" As Mom wished, I recorded a video and sent it to the family group chat. She added: "Janice Harrison is no longer my daughter from now onward. Whatever she does has nothing to do with me. If you want to blame someone, go blame that jerk of a father of hers!" She then glared at me viciously and said, "Even though we've cut ties, you still have to pay to support me. Considering our relationship for 27 years, you can just pay me a lump sum and be done with it." I gave Mom all my savings. Before leaving, she spotted an old childhood photo of us on my desk. She then smashed it into pieces and said, "I feel disgusted knowing that we've taken photos together. I couldn't believe I gave birth to a bitch like you who knowingly became a homewrecker!" Mom left, and the entire fiasco came to an end. I sat slumped against the wall for the longest time. My legs were numb by the time I got up. My phone rang incessantly. Irritated, I answered the call, and Gideon's voice came on. "Are you okay? Don't be so dramatic. Give it a few days, and everyone will forget about it." His fiancée was the one who maliciously slandered me, yet I was the dramatic one in his eyes. I cursed, "Go to hell, you bastard!" I then ended the call without hesitation. I put down my phone and posted all our old chat history, photos, and even pictures of his gifts for me onto X. I wrote: "I'm the so-called 'homewrecker' in this scandal, but I'm not the homewrecker here. As for the identity of the real homewrecker, I believe Mr. Gideon Miller and Ms. Miriam Hoffman would know better. "I was devastated upon finding out about the marriage between the Millers and the Hoffmans. It hit me that our eight-year-long relationship was nothing but a fleeting affair in Mr. Miller's eyes. I was merely his long-term companion." I continued: "He could've ended things with me when he decided to marry Ms. Miriam Hoffman—but he didn't. He wanted both a sweet, obedient lover and also a capable wife to stand by him in the business world. But how could anyone have it both ways? "I would've walked away, but Ms. Hoffman and Mr. Miller went as far as fabricating lies about me cheating just to make me leave. I never knew Mr. Miller was this "generous"—willing to call himself a cuckold just to get rid of me." My post gained massive attention the moment it was posted. Although both the Millers and the Hoffmans tried their best to suppress the trending topic, it was far from salvageable. After all, they had plenty of enemies in the business world.